Artfully
Concealed Prohibited Items – It’s
important to examine your bags prior to traveling to ensure no prohibited items
are inside. If a prohibited item is discovered in your bag or on your body, you
could be cited and quite possibly arrested by local law enforcement. Here are a
few examples from this week where prohibited items were found by our officers
in strange places.

A
hairbrush dagger was discovered at Phoenix-Mesa (AZA).

Two
credit card knives were discovered at Albuquerque (ABQ) this week.

Stun
Guns –21 stun guns were discovered this week in carry-on
bags around the nation. Three were discovered at Denver (DEN), two at
Albuquerque (ABQ), two at Huntsville (HSV), two at Las Vegas (LAS), two at Salt
Lake City (SLC), and one at each at Anchorage (ANC), Atlanta (ATL), Baltimore
(BWI), Birmingham (BHM), Fayetteville (FAY), New Castle (ILG), New
Orleans (MSY), Sacramento (SMF), San Diego (SAN), and San Francisco (SFO).

Inert
Ordnance and Grenades etc.
- We continue to find inert hand grenades and other weaponry on a weekly basis.
Please keep in mind that if an item looks like a realistic bomb, grenade, mine,
etc., it is prohibited - real or not. When these items are found at a
checkpoint or in checked baggage, they can cause significant delays in
checkpoint screening. While they may be novelty items, you cannot bring them on
a plane. Read
here on why inert items cause problems.

A
plastic replica grenade was detected in a carry-on bag at Denver (DEN).

An inert
grenade was detected in checked baggage at Philadelphia (PHL)

*In
order to provide a timely weekly update, I compile my data from a preliminary
report. The year-end numbers will vary slightly (increase) from what I report
in the weekly updates. However, any monthly, midyear, or end-of-year numbers
TSA provides on this blog or elsewhere will not be estimates.

Unfortunately
these sorts of occurrences are all too frequent which is why we talk about
these finds. Sure, it’s great to share the things that our officers are
finding, but at the same time, each time we find a dangerous item, the
throughput is slowed down and a passenger that likely had no ill intent ends up
with a citation or in some cases is even arrested. The passenger can face a
penalty as high as $7,500.00. This is a friendly reminder to please
leave these items at home. Just because we find a prohibited item on an
individual does not mean they had bad intentions, that's for the law
enforcement officer to decide. In many cases, people simply forgot they had
these items.

Is there a list of the penalties assessed for attempting to bring weapons on board? I think it would be helpful to publish the prosecution numbers. Maybe that would get the word out and travelers would stop trying to bring weapons on board. Get the prosecution numbers and sentences and fines out in the press and tv and blogs and whatever. Thanks.

Good job TSA!!! Thank You for keeping our Planes & Airports Safe!!! I'm all for the Bill of Rights, but I check my copy with my Luggage!!! All the rights in the world won't help at 35,000 feet!!! I trust the pilot and crew to get us to our destination!!! Do whatever you have to do to keep violent people and dangerous devices off of planes and out of airports!!!

mtnwolf63, not everyone will check their rights at the airport door. Some of us expect government workers to follow the laws and Constitution.

Nothing the TSA does will keep violent people off of planes.

The TSA misses 7 "dangerous devices" for every 3 they find, so they aren't keeping them "off of planes and out of airports!!!"

All of the guns and knives listed in Bob's Weekly Blotter were not threats to aviation safety and none were carried by terrorists.

All of the guns and knives listed in Bob's Weekly Blotter were found in carry-on bags, so naked pic scanners were unnecessarily used to violate flyer's rights (y'know, the ones you packed in your checked baggage).

Bob, when are you going to post pics of the water, shampoo, food, and other items TSA employees confiscate each week? Don't you want to be complete in your report?

Jim Huggins said...Welcome to the TSA Blog ... where the only thing TSA ever talks about is weapons found at checkpoints.

September 21, 2013 at 11:04 PM--------------------------------

These weapons are almost always found with the old metal detector and x-ray baggage scanners that have been in use for decades. I don't see the value of the new scanners. They cost millions of dollars and seem to be less effective than the old methods.

How many of these discovered were test for the security people? Hard for me to believe there are that many stupid people week to week and then not hearing about the legal issues these perople face leads me to believe the reports are test. Not complaining you understand. Would like to know how many test were run and were all discovered. Less than 100% would not be good.

The TSA misses 7 "dangerous devices" for every 3 they find, so they aren't keeping them "off of planes and out of airports!!!"

All of the guns and knives listed in Bob's Weekly Blotter were not threats to aviation safety and none were carried by terrorists._-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-

Ok Screenshot I would like to see your proof of your statment above.How in the world do you know that there were not terrorists? They could have been testing the system, and TSA caught them. So show me your proof and facts. And not a threat to aviation? are you kidding me? 1 bullet or more through the cockpit into the captian and First Officer, and you have a crashing aircraft.

Anonymous said..."The article about the gambling was pretty self-explanatory. Why would Bob need to blog about that? They broke the rules, they were discovered, they were punished. What else is there to say?"

Transparency, maybe? Like it or not, Blogger Bog is a spokesperson for the TSA. Something like that breaks, he, or some other blog team member, needs to address it. By not, it has the appearance of being swept under the rug. All he really has to do is link to something the TSA has already stated publicly...

erudite jarhead said...

"Thank you for your diligent, patriotic work and---also---for your patience with those who are ungrateful and/or have an only vaguely-related axe to grind."

As a former military member, you should know your oath. Defending that oath is not some vaguely-related axe. It is the only axe that really matters.

"Ok Screenshot I would like to see your proof of your statment above.How in the world do you know that there were not terrorists? They could have been testing the system, and TSA caught them. So show me your proof and facts. And not a threat to aviation? are you kidding me? 1 bullet or more through the cockpit into the captian and First Officer, and you have a crashing aircraft."

You really don't know anything about the integrity of an aircraft, do you?

RB……… you are right that feeling safe is not being safe. But considering their work, I feel so! Moreover, every organization has weaknesses, but it doesn’t mean that you will scream at it only. Give them a chance to improve: anyway you are doing a great job by pointing their weaknesses. Well done!

We believe that we all have rights personally I believe its all gone to far. We all need to live my the law of the land / country that we live in. I have been fortunate enough to have traveled a fair bit and any country I have been to I have abided by their rules. So why do we allow people to come to our country and not abide by our rules? And when they dont why do we not just put them on the first boat home?